When we see records being broken and unprecedented events such as this, the onus is on those who deny any connection to climate change to prove their case. Global warming has fundamentally altered the background conditions that give rise to all weather. In the strictest sense, all weather is now connected to climate change. Kevin Trenberth

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

When was the last time Roy Spencer, Richard Lindzen or Patrick Michaels actually published a scientific study that was worth the paper on which it was printed? Inquiring minds would like to know.

When was the last time (if ever) that any of the AGW climate deniers published a paper that refuted the ongoing catastrophe of fossil-fuel-emission-induced climate change?

And I’m talking about a “real” unrefutable, indisputable contribution to the science of the understanding of climate change.

Instead, what we have been getting from the “big names” of AGW climate denialism is a tragi-comedic deluge of errors, some so egregious as to give every appearance of being intentional.

But at this point I have to give some benefit of the doubt to the most recent names, in order of their level of self-delusionment.

First place in the self-deluded category must of course go to Roy Spencer. He was ever a middling scientist and is now entirely befuddled.

Second place goes to Richard Linzden, due to the fact that he was once, so they say, capable of decent work. His most recent foray (complete with his posting of entirely cogent and scathing peer reviews of his paper) was a total embarrassment, but he appears to be unaware of this fact. True self-delusion.

Third place must, perforce, go to Patrick Michaels – he of the $4 million annual income, of which he admits some 40% is due to fees from fossil-fuel companies. Patrick Michaels is a special case. He deludes himself only when it’s necessary to speak in public, pushing the idea that CO2 emissions are just not that big a deal, or when he co-authors garbage by other members of the Climate Denial Machine. 40% of $4 million is a nice chunk of change – far better than 30 pieces of silver. But, one has to ask: From where does the other 60% come? Conservative think tanks funded by, oh wait, fossil-fuel interests?

We could reclassify the above three categories and call them: Useful idiot, willing fool, and prostitute (although that would be a slam to the world’s oldest profession).